IOPC to investigate whether stop and search was discriminatory

Liam and Dijon Joseph were standing outside a Caribbean food shop in Deptford on 27 February when they were forcibly detained by a number of police for a drugs search. They have complained to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) that they are victims of provocative racial profiling.

The IOPC has acknowledged the huge public interest in both this incident and in the use of stop and search powers within minority ethnic communities generally, and have agreed to conduct an independent investigation of this incident. David Lammy MP has described their case as “exemplary” of the problems with stop and search in the black community.